THE PEARL BUTTON (EL BOTON DE NACAR)
Cert 12A
75 mins
BBFC advice: Contains images of real dead bodies, references to torture
The green shoots of spring are here and there are signs that we are emerging from the dross of post-Oscar season.
Patricio Guzman's The Pearl Button is a documentary which charts the blackest episodes of Chilean history and connects them to water and a pearl button.
The premise seemed unpromising to me but this is a deep piece of work which benefits from high-quality narration and superb cinematography.
Guzman begins by looking at Chile's indigenous population and speaks to some of the 20 descendants of people who lived off the ocean for hundreds of years,
When the Spanish arrived they were dragged from their traditional lives by colonists who tried to westernise them. Among them was a chap who the English named Jemmy Button,
Guzman lays this history against that of the murderous dictatorship in which many thousands of Chileans were murdered. The connection to water is that victims were dumped from helicopters into the sea.
Guzman lays these horror stories into the context of the earth's place in the cosmos and Chile's place on earth.
These are unusual linkages but are typical of Guzman's work - his recent film, Nostalgia For The Light, brought together the murderous Pinochet era with Chileans' love of astronomy
I enjoyed Nostalgia For The Light but I thought The Pearl Button was better. It is beautiful, cleverly constructed and truly enlightening
Reasons to watch: engrossing story and beautiful cinematography
Reasons to avoid: it tries to cover too much ground
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: yes - in photographs
Overall rating: 8/10
Star tweet
Adrien Oumhani Découvrez le magnifique film Le Bouton de Nacre de Patricio Guzman à Saint-Malo les 24 et 25 mai #LeBoutonDeNacre